Book Review: Being a bird

The launch of this interesting book ‘BEING A BIRD’ was held recently at the National Museum’s Ford Hall. The occasion sponsored by Kenya Tourism Board and Nature Kenya-the East Africa Natural History Society was graced by nature and bird enthusiasts including famous British author,birder, and TV personality DavidLindo who launched the book.The book, which is a first of its kind in the country, seeks to  encourage Kenyan children to adopt bird watching also known as birding as a fulfi lling past time.

Birding is the identifi cation and observation of wild birds in their natural habitat as a recreation. A birder hence is a person who identifi es and studies birds in their natural habitats. Some of the avid birders continue the passion into careers such as tour guides or become ornithologists.
Ornithology is the scientific study of birds. Amazingly, Kenya hosts more bird species than most countries. This is because of its location close to the equator that has favourable weather all year round. Different kinds of bird also prefer Kenya as a home because it has different habitats like mountains, forests, grasslands, deserts, lakes, and the Indian Ocean. Whilst most birding books focus on bird identifi cation,